Sad to say, Ray Bradbury died yesterday evening, aged 91. Prior to last year it had been a long time since I'd read one of his books, but I picked up The Martian Chronicles (prompted by Bill's Horrorthon, oddly, I think) and found it an extremely satisfying read. It's a shame we can't keep the good writers forever, but then that's what their books are for, I suppose. I still have a sentence from Farenheit 451 floating around in my head and I hope it never leaves.

The Martian Chronicles gave me one of my first real road trips into the Sense of Wonderland, and I still have my original copy 40+ years later. It's a few years since I read it, time to dust it off. I've been thinking today that I should introduce my kids to his works, pass the baton on, I may well make it the next bedtime read for my eldest.

My first Ray Bradbury was in school when aged around 12/13 we read A Sound of Thunder. Approximately the same time there was a TV adaptation of The Martian Chronicles which I watched (and then read), followed shortly by Fahrenheit 451 and his collection of short stories, The Golden Apples of the Sun. I don't have a precise abiding memory of just how good his writing is but as my children have got older, I have made sure I nudged those books towards them as good reads.

I'm ambivalent about Bradbury's writing, but The Martian Chronicles is a great book. And on the day he died, I read two Bradbury stories I'd never read before, "The October Game" and "Heavy-Duty." Both, especially the latter, were excellent.

I first read Bradbury when I was in secondary school. I remember picking up a copy of Fahrenheit 451 during the summer break and being really impressed by the story. I then followed it up with The Martian Chronicles, The Golden Apples of the Sun, The Illustrated Man, and Quicker Than The Eye.